Engineering Research Center for Innovative and Strategic Transformation of Alkane Resources - CISTAR

由于从页岩地层中提取天然气的技术，美国已探明的天然气储量在过去15年里几乎翻了一番。这些储备中有相当大一部分位于偏远地区。目前，基础设施和经济条件都不适合运输该链油气中的轻烃（LHC）烷烃组分（甲烷、乙烷、丙烷和丁烷）。将天然气输送到集中的工厂，在那里它们可以加工成有价值的液体燃料和化学中间体。美国国家科学基金会烷烃资源创新和战略转化工程研究中心（CISTAR）旨在为开发小型、模块化、本地化和高度网络化的加工厂所需的催化、分离和工艺设计领域提供基础研究知识，这些加工厂将把lhc从偏远的页岩资源转化为液体化学品和运输燃料，从而经济地利用原本未被充分利用的资源。为此，CISTAR？美国的首要目标是提供技术创新和多样化的训练有素的劳动力，以实现页岩气作为低碳足迹的潜力。桥燃料?为未来的可持续能源经济干杯。CISTAR由普渡大学牵头，合作伙伴包括西北大学、圣母大学、新墨西哥大学和德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校。CISTAR将利用催化和膜材料领域的科学和工程发现，通过将新的催化烷烃脱氢和烯烃低聚步骤与新的分离相结合，为经济生产液体化学品和运输燃料开发创新的工艺设计。整个过程将使用原料（乙烷和C2+），并在目前商业催化剂无法实现的转换和温度下操作，以消除通常与烯烃分离和纯化相关的大量资金和能源成本。CISTAR还将探索甲烷与乙烯氧化偶联的新机会，然后将其用作转化为液体燃料的原料。基础知识将被转移到化学品和燃料的过程中，使用试验台，从实验室规模到全尺寸的中试工厂，使用系统级生命周期和环境影响分析进行经济评估。一个综合的工厂设计将全面优化，以满足当地，州和联邦政策，以及安全和环境标准。CISTAR创新生态系统将把主要的工业合作伙伴和非工业利益相关者（如政府机构、监管机构、非政府组织和消费者）聚集在一起，将中心商业化。美国的研究发现，并最大限度地造福社会。强大的研究和教育整合对于培养下一代碳氢化合物劳动力和石化和能源行业领导者至关重要。CISTAR在大学和大学预科教育中提供了经过验证的领域塑造能力，以解决关键的劳动力缺口，并培养具有技术和专业技能的多样化学生，以领导和创新分离，反应工程，系统工程和催化社区。外展项目旨在培养公众的安全意识和对环境负责的方式，将美国的碳氢化合物资源作为通向可再生能源未来的桥梁。

The United States proven reserves of natural gas have nearly doubled in the past 15 years as a result of technologies to extract gas from shale formations. A sizeable fraction of these reserves are located in remote areas. Currently, the infrastructure and economics are not favorable for transporting the Light Hydrocarbon (LHC) alkane constituents (methane, ethane, propane, and butanes) of this ?stranded? gas to centralized plants where they can be processed to valuable liquid fuels and chemical intermediates. The NSF Engineering Research Center for Innovative and Strategic Transformation of Alkane Resources (CISTAR) aims to provide basic research understanding in the areas of catalysis, separations, and process design needed to develop small, modular, local, and highly-networked processing plants that will convert LHCs from remote shale resources to liquid chemicals and transportation fuels, thereby economically utilizing resources that would otherwise be underutilized. To this end, CISTAR?s overarching goal is to provide the technological innovation and a diverse highly-trained workforce to realize the potential of shale gas as a lower-carbon-footprint ?bridge fuel? to a future sustainable energy economy. CISTAR is led by Purdue University, with partners at Northwestern University, the University of Notre Dame, the University of New Mexico, and the University of Texas-Austin. CISTAR will take advantage of scientific and engineering discoveries in the areas of catalytic and membrane materials to enable the development of innovative process designs for economical production of liquid chemicals and transportation fuels by combining new catalytic alkane dehydrogenation and olefin oligomerization steps with novel separations. The overall process will operate with feedstocks (ethane and C2+), and at conversions and temperatures not possible with current commercial catalysts, to eliminate large capital and energy costs normally associated with olefin separation and purification. CISTAR will also explore new opportunities for the oxidative coupling of methane to ethylene, which can then be used as a feedstock for conversion to liquid fuels. Fundamental knowledge will be transferred to processes for chemicals and fuels using testbeds ranging from lab-scale up to a full-size pilot plant with economic evaluations using systems-level lifecycle and environmental impact analysis. An integrated plant design will be comprehensively optimized to meet local, state, and federal policies, as well as safety and environmental standards. The CISTAR Innovation Ecosystem will bring together the key industrial partners and non-industrial stakeholders such as government agencies, regulators, NGOs, and consumers to commercialize the Center?s research discoveries and to maximize benefits to society. Strong research and education integration will be vital for launching the next-generation hydrocarbon workforce and petrochemical and energy industry leaders. CISTAR brings proven, field-shaping capabilities in university and precollege education to address a critical workforce void and develop diverse students with technical and professional skills to lead and innovate in the separations, reaction engineering, systems engineering, and catalysis communities. Outreach programs will be aimed at fostering public awareness of safe and environmentally responsible ways to use U.S. hydrocarbon resources as a bridge to a renewable energy future.